The economies of terror and of work are not separate any more. They are conflicting currents within globalization itself. The Indians, Kenyans and Egyptians who are now being held hostage in Iraq are caught in the dangerous and inevitable crossing of these two currents. Negotiations between the Indian government and the captors — a militant group called Holders of the Black Banners — seem to be working. The latter’s deadline has been extended, although with more demands added. All seven hostages are truck-drivers working for a Kuwaiti transport company, supplying food and other essentials to private clients as well as American forces camping on the border between Iraq and Kuwait. The militants not only want this transport company to pull out of Iraq, but they also want it to compensate families of the dead in Falluja; Iraqi prisoners in American and Kuwaiti jails have to be released, and India must not attack Islamic religious leaders.

The fact that India, Kenya and Egypt have not sent troops to Iraq has become irrelevant now as a guarantee for the safety of their citizens there. Outsiders doing any form of work in that country, even indirectly related to reconstruction or peacekeeping, are being identified with American interests. Hence, Indian businessmen, truck-drivers, cooks and computer-operators are all seen as dealing with “American cowboy occupiers”. And the language of this militant indictment conflates the globalization of resources, labour and terror: “Here you are once again transporting goods, weapons and military equipment that back the US army.” It is profoundly ironic that the free movement of terror and of labour are both the consequence of globalization. Without the global circulation of “goods, weapons and military equipment”, without computers and the internet, terrorism, in its post-9/11 form, could not have become an international phenomenon. Indeed, 9/11 itself could be seen as globalization’s strange fruit.

But poor Indians, Kenyans and Egyptians use a parallel global mechanism which gives them access to lucrative destinations outside their countries, where they can work and earn good money. Iraq is now such a place, with around 5,000 Indians working there. The Indian embassy in Kuwait had again started issuing no-objection certificates to Indians wanting to cross over into Iraq to work. There also exists a nexus between recruiting agents in India and placement agencies in the Gulf that sustains, and is sustained by, this movement of labour. But the growth of terrorism is inversely proportional to the advancement of human freedom. India has now followed Kenya in advising its people to stop working in Iraq and come back to their own country. Delhi has forbidden new recruitment, and no-objection certificates have been stopped again in Kuwait. Work and terror cannot both be global any more.